Expiring .de domains

http://www.denic.de/en/faqs/alle_faqs/index.html#section_185 said:

Why does DENIC not make available the zone files for .de?


The DENIC zone files contain – roughly spoken – a list of all .de-domains together with information on the name servers that belong to them. DENIC does not hand over these zone files (or parts of it) to any third parties. Such disclosure would run counter to the imperatives of data protection and would undermine the defence of domain holders against possible abuse. Germany's Federal Data Protection Act is rather far-reaching in this respect. Protected "person-related data" includes not only information that is related directly to a particular individual, but also any data that could be used to identify individuals. Since it would be easy to combine the zone file with DENIC's whois query to extract data and to link them to individuals, the data contained in the zone file is protected because it is person-related.

Generally, DENIC collects and processes data about domains and their holders solely for the purpose of domain administration, and that does not require the zone file to be published. Moreover, from the perspective of domain administration, there are no circumstances in which a third party could justifiably need such a file. On the contrary: there would be a big danger of the zone file being used for activities that might jeopardize the interests of domain holders. Spammers or hackers might use it easily as a data source, since there are all existing .de-domains listed in the zone file. Combined with the whois query, these domain data could be person-related. Once the zone file had been published or rendered publicly available, DENIC would have lost any means of monitoring or influencing its use or of establishing and preventing any breaches of others' rights. Even the copyright that DENIC holds for the zone file, prohibiting unauthorized copies and further dissemination, would not provide any real protection.

In this respect, DENIC can be reasonably compared with a bank. No bank publishes a complete list of all the account numbers it has issued; in the same way, DENIC does not make the zone files available either.

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